AMES – Spring football has officially begun at Iowa State. Fresh off a program-best 11-win season that saw the Cyclones make the Big 12 Championship and win the Pop-Tarts Bowl, the road to August starts now.

A sense of urgency is already there for Iowa State, considering the Cyclones will play the first game of the 2025 season in Dublin, Ireland, at the Aer Lingus Classic.

Throughout the winter months and opening practices, head coach Matt Campbell is still up indecisive about whether Iowa State will have an open spring practice or not. He said his priority is doing what is best for this team and these players.

“Every year is different,” Campbell said. “Believe me, there’s some years where I think it’s awesome. I think it’s awesome to open up the stadium to a young team that needs that, to play in front of a crowd.”

Though the team itself is fairly young and has lost team captains and veteran players in Jaylin Noel, Beau Freyler, J.R. Singleton, Darien Porter and Jayden Higgins, among others, there is still plentiful leadership among the Cyclones.

At the helm of it all is quarterback Rocco Becht, who will return for his junior season. Becht will have a lot of returning faces at tight end, including Benjamin Brahmer, Gabe Burkle and Tyler Moore.

“Collectively, that group getting healthy, coming back, we feel really strongly about what that room has the opportunity to look like,” Campbell said. “It’s got a chance to be one of the great rooms in college football.”

In past seasons, Iowa State has heavily relied on the tight end room, especially during the Brock Purdy era. With the three biggest contributors from a season ago set to come back, Becht will have a lot of big options to target.

At wide receiver, Becht does have some returning faces, such as Eli Green, Carson Brown and the hopeful return of Daniel Jackson, who missed last season with a leg injury.

But the new faces in the room bring a lot of intrigue, those being East Carolina transfer Chase Sowell, a 6-foot-4-inch wideout from Humble, Texas, and UCF transfer Xavier Townsend, who stands at 5 foot 11 inches.

“Those two guys can be Noel and Higgins, they’re just going to have to put in the work,” Becht said. “They do have great work ethics. I’ve seen that the last couple months.”

“I think they’re going to fit in great,” Burkle said. “It’ll just be good for them to get out there and play football with us instead of just working out.”

With all of that talent across the new faces and returners, Becht believes that this is one of the deepest receiver rooms and should be one to make some noise in the upcoming season.

“The depth that we have in the receiver room, probably from top to bottom, is the most talented that we’ve had since I’ve been here,” Becht said.

On the defensive side of the ball, leadership roles will shift, and defensive lineman Domonique Orange will look to be the one to fill Singleton’s role.

Orange, who will return for his senior season, has increased his productivity each season, recording eight tackles as a freshman, 16 as a sophomore and 24 his junior year.

That level of progression is something Orange attributes to the leadership and friendship he had with Singleton, and the two still talk whenever Orange needs advice.

“From a leadership standpoint and from a football standpoint, [Singleton] has been a tremendous person in my corner,” Orange said. “I still call him to this day to ask about anything, like, what should I do better to help the D-line, whatever it may be, [Singleton] has always been that person that I’ll talk to.”

It’s just another example of the culture at work.

“If I could even get a quarter of what he did in the impact he had on this team, I think I’ll be just fine,” Orange said.

Another name on the defensive side of the ball that will return is linebacker Caleb Bacon. Bacon was expected to have a larger role on the team in 2024, moving from special teams to being a bigger part of the linebacker core.

But on his fifth play from scrimmage in the season opener, Bacon went down with a leg injury that left him sidelined the entire season. Now, Bacon is back and said he feels better than ever.

“That first week, kind of some denial and having to come to the realization that my season’s probably over,” Bacon said. “It almost didn’t feel real.”

During his rehab time, Bacon had a lot to think about, but that time away from the field only made him hungrier to get back and play with his teammates again.

While Bacon and many other linebackers, including Will McLaughlin, were out for a large chunk of the season, younger players had to step up and fill in those gaps.

Those adverse moments will be an asset to the Cyclones this season, having veterans like Bacon and McLaughlin return, along with younger players like Rylan Barnes and Cael Brezina coming back with game experience.

“We’ve got a lot of guys who have gotten [experience] this last year,” Bacon said.